The Book of Agreement and Remembrance: Developing a Healthy Christian Marriage

By Chris Broughton

For years, author Chris Broughton and his wife, Gay, watched as their friends and fellow Christians suffered from divorce. In 1999, they decided to do something about it and established Genesis 2:24 ministries as an outreach to help couples learn to live happily together.

In The Book of Agreement and Remembrance, Broughton helps married couples strengthen their relationships and fellowship by living in agreement using principles and tactics he and Gay have been teaching to couples for more than twenty years. He presents a definition of Biblical unity in marriage, looks at the false view of what the world sees as agreement, and offers a tried-and-true method to break free of the false view to live in truth.

Using a host of teaching stories, Broughton demonstrates that married couples who live in Christ have few relationship issues. He shows how man and wife can have peace in their home and live a happily ever after life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Dec 18, 2018
• ISBN: 9781532063909

Chris Broughton

Chris Broughton graduated from Indiana University in 1980 and has worked in IT for thirty-five years. He is an ordained pastor within the EMIF organization in Scottsboro, Alabama. Broughton and his wife, Gay, co-founded Genesis 2:24 Ministries, an organization devoted to seeing divorce eliminated. They have one son and two grandchildren and live in Southern Indiana. He is the author of 21Days to Happily Ever After.

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Copyright © 2018 Chris Broughton.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Author Credits: Genesis 2:24 Ministries

Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture quotations are taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

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ISBN: 978-1-5320-6389-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5320-6394-7 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5320-6390-9 (e)

iUniverse rev. date:   02/14/2019

Contents

Foreword

Introduction

About Genesis 2:24 Ministries

About this book

Why did I write a book about agreement and remembrance?

Who is this book written for?

Will reading this book fix all my marriage problems?

Why read this book and practice the principles in it?

Who are the couples mentioned in this book?

Where do I start?

The beginning: God’s plan for marriage

In beginning God created.

Who invented marriage and why?

What does it mean to leave and cleave?

What is one flesh?

What is naked and unashamed?

What is a covenant relationship?

Take a moment to check your vitals

Common problems in marriage

Sex and Money

The longest fight ever

Selfishness in marriage

The top 5 reasons for divorce

Your relationship with Jesus and your marriage

Coming to An Agreement (Counterfeit Agreement)

Methods to come to an agreement

Expert Opinion

Survival of the Fittest

The Bully

Compromise

Isaac and Sara

Just get along

Agreeing to Disagree

Coming into Agreement

Know the Bible

John and Karen

Prefer your spouse

Let your yes be yes and your no be no

Practice transparency (Intimacy)

Recognize the relationship hierarchy

Under what circumstance will you change your mind?

Strife break

Rating the importance of the discussion

Do not hurry

Create Your Book of Agreement and Remembrance

My first healing

Our first Book of Agreement and Remembrance

Time to create your Book of Agreement and Remembrance

Creating a vision for your marriage

Core Agreements

The inventory

Is the Bible the true cover to cover?

Is your name in the Lamb’s Book of Life?

Are you planning to live with your spouse for the rest of your life?

Tom and Susan

The Budget

How to know if you have made a good decision?

Does each decision serve God’s kingdom?

Does it serve your one flesh relationship?

Does each decision line up with the Bible?

Remembering to always walk in Agreement

Preemptive decision making

Daniel in the lion’s den

David and Goliath

The near drowning of the twelve

Examples of preemptive decisions

Managing change

The budget meeting

Final advice and encouragement

Where can I gather advice and support?

Be a part of a Bible-believing church

Establish a personal time of prayer and Bible reading

Other resources

The blessing of unity

Conclusion on agreement

Foreword

It had to be somewhere around 1997 when I first met Chris and his lovely wife Gay. That’s right we go back to the 1900s, you can say we have been friends along time. One thing I cherish about our friendship is that Chris is not just my friend, he is a friend of my family and a friend of my friends. We do life together as we are gifted the time and opportunities.

You will come across a story of a neighbor child and her perception of Chris and Gay. She never separates the two from each other. That is what inspires me most about the man who has written this book. He does life the way God instructed it to be done, the two shall be one.

In your hands you may recognize a book. Perhaps it is a modern-day epistle on marriage. It is written as inspired of the Holy Spirit. Presented as one who has an authority. Any and all concepts from the Book of Agreement are scripturally found and personally experienced. And I have witnessed the fruit of such a life lived by two who have become one!

Your time reading will not be wasted. Enjoy it and explore it! Just as the epistles of the greatest book ever written remain relevant and evident. So, you will find this book to be a manual for you to experience a blessed and prosperous marriage.

In Him,

Greg DeVries

Lead Pastor, The Well

Introduction

About Genesis 2:24 Ministries

For years my wife Gay and I watched our friends and fellow Christians suffer from the pain of divorce. This broke our hearts. In 1999 we decided to do something about it and established Genesis 2:24 ministries as an outreach to help couples learn to live together happily. We worked mostly in southern Indiana with individual couples but also held group studies. In 2008 Genesis 2:24 Ministries was organized as a not-for-profit corporation in the state of Indiana. The ministry has a 501c3 designation as a religious organization. Chris and Gay Broughton are a pastoral couple associated with the EMIF organization in Scottsboro, Alabama.

The mission of Genesis 2:24 Ministries: To Restore Marriage to the place of honor described in God’s Word.

The Vision of Genesis 2:24 Ministries is to see divorce abolished in our lifetime.

We want to see God’s plan for marriage realized in every marital relationship. Genesis 2:24 Ministries does individual couples coaching, group teaching and ministry support. Our services are always free and with the advent of technology, we have found we can reach nearly anyone by using services such as facetime and skype.

About this book

Thank you for the opportunity to help you and your spouse to live happily ever after. I count it as a privilege and pray that God will bless you through the words I have written here.

Why did I write a book about agreement and remembrance?

Since we founded Genesis 2:24 Ministries in 1999, we have seen a wide variety of marital problems. The problems come in a myriad of sizes, shapes, and colors but have one recurring theme: disagreement and disunity. We believe a marriage built on common agreement with God and his plan for marriage will provide a couple with all they need to live happily ever after in peace and unity.

We have spent more than half of our married life coaching couples to live happily ever after and through those experiences we have developed a number of tools and tactics. Couples with who we are working often remark, It sure would help if you would write these lessons down so we can get help when you are not around. The Book of Agreement and Remembrance is one of the tools we teach. This book is the lessons and tactics needed to implement your own Book of Agreement and Remembrance … written down.

The contents of this book are principles and tactics my wife, Gay, and I have been teaching to couples for more than 20 years. They are well-tested we know that you will benefit from these writings as you learn to agree and live in unity. It is our prayer that your marriage profits from these lessons as you learn to travel through your married life together and in agreement.

Who is this book written for?

The short answer is you, or at least I hope so. I believe it is God’s desire that all will have life and have it abundantly. I believe we were created to be married and to be married happily. I believe God’s plan is to have us enjoy agreement, unity, and intimacy in our marriage. The purpose of this book is to teach agreement and unity with one another through lessons and tactics we have developed and adapted from the Bible.

If you are not yet a believer, the principles and tactics taught here may be hard for you to understand and perhaps even harder to adopt and use. Please understand, I am not saying the tactics in this book will not work for those not yet born again. I am saying, it will be difficult for you to understand why these principles work and you may have difficulty with their application to your life. Sometimes that difficulty will add to an already frustrating situation. Please hold your frustration at arm’s length